references

Silhouettes are also known
as paper cuttings and shadows. Long before photography was invented,
our ancestors used to have portraits of themselves taken sideways.
They were called silhouette portraits, and they were not taken with
a camera, but were cut out of thin black paper, and stuck
upon a white card. The word silhouette comes from the name
of Monsieur Etienne de Silhouette, a French Minister of
Finance in 1759.

Until a few years ago men might often have been seen in the
streets of Boston and other big cities, who for a penny,
would cut out a silhouette portrait of anyone who cared to
stand before them for a few minutes. These portraits were
about the size of a small photograph, and were
often very good likenesses. Of course, these portraits
were more or less accurate as side views of the face,
according to the skill of the man who cut them out.
If he had much artistic ability they were good likenesses;
if not, they were sometimes very poor.

But in still earlier
days, when silhouette portraits were fashionable and popular,
they used to be done in a more scientific way. The person
whose portrait was to be taken sat sideways before a screen,
with a light on a table on the other side of him, and in
this way a clear shadow was thrown upon the screen, which
gave a perfect portrait if the light and sitter were
arranged properly.

The eighteenth century is widely regarded
as the renaissance of silhouettes. Little
known though is that English silhouettes in
those days were generally painted, not
cut-out. A life-size cut-out was usually
taken from the subject's shadow, which was
used as an artist's cartoon. From this the
finished silhouette was then made, using a
reducing instrument known as a pantograph,
or "stork's beak". This is why, to this day,
artists talk of "taking" a silhouette,
rather than drawing or cutting it. In much
the same way that photographers "take" a
photograph.

The skill of the best artists lay in the
painting. This was done with soot, or lamp
black, on plaster or glass. After painting
the face dead black the hair, hats, ribbons,
frills, and other essential accessories of
the day, would have been "dragged" out,
using a fine brush with progressively more
and more diluted pigment.

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1950-2002

USA

Brian Flora

featured artist

references

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